Indian President Manmohan Singh told Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on the sidelines of the Seoul nuclear safety summit that India was willing to export 5,000MW of electricity to Pakistan to enable the country meet its energy requirements, Geo News reported on Wednesday.
Earlier, the Indian PM told reporters on board his special aircraft while returning from a four-day visit to South Korea that Gilani had asked him if India could supply power to Pakistan from Punjab. “I said we will look into it,” he said.
Welcoming Pakistan’s move to liberalise trade with India, Singh said he could visit the neighbouring country if there was something solid to celebrate. “I had a good meeting with him (Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani). I thanked him for the trade concessions that they have announced,” the Indian prime minister said.
Singh said he thanked the Pakistani prime minister for the trade concessions his government had made to India recently.
Singh said Gilani asked him when he was coming to Pakistan on an official visit. “He (Gilani) said when are you coming there (Pakistan). So, I said let us do something solid so that we can celebrate,” Singh said.
“It was a pull aside, but a little more extended,” Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai said of the two PMs meeting. While Singh was accompanied by Mathai and National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon, Gilani was accompanied by Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar. Pakistan’s trade concessions were seen as a move towards granting India the ‘Most Favoured Nation’ status under World Trade Organisation rules and a major boost towards normalising economic ties.
Later briefing reporters on the meeting, Mathai said both leaders believed that things were moving quite well in bilateral relations.
He said Singh appreciated the fact that discussions on trade relations had moved forward as committed by Gilani.